The intent isn't for runes to be hot-swappable or interchangeable at any time. The ability to change the rune is the point of any comments made about switching them around, not that we want to allow easy and free interchangeable runes. What we do intend is for people to be able to try different runes without fear of losing the rune, or permanently changing the way a skill works.
Early design thoughts on rune swapping are that there would be some sort of cost to remove them so a new one could be put in its place. Early in the character's life it would be inexpensive enough so it isn't prohibitive, as we want to encourage experimentation, but later on the cost would become more substantial.
In addition, the high end runes are intended to be very rare. So while you're looking for them we want you to be able to use the runes you have without fear of losing them or using them incorrectly. Being able to experiment with different runes along the way to creating your perfect character is more fun, and potentially enlightening to the different ways your character can be used.
He also went on to say that it hasn't yet been decided on if the "some sort of cost to remove them" will be entirely currency based or something else. I definitely like that they have it set up so you'll be able to experiment with the runes without worrying about using them improperly. What do you guys think?
I hope this doesn't mean that the old runes will be destroyed. I couldn't tell from the post if this was the case.
All the duping did was drive up inflation, runes would always be the currency for LoD, as the SoJ used to be in the base game. They were basically designed to be.
Gold is going to be useless in Diablo 3, unless it's tied directly to character power and you can't manage to reasonably acquire enough to stay ahead of the curve. I.E.:
Skill Tomes to "level up" your skills, a hybrid of WoW and Diablo 1's system, where it takes more and MOAR tomes to level up a skill. Not going to happen, because that's what the skill rune system is for, tacking on yet another layer is needlessly over-complicating things.
Buying gear from the merchant / crafting system. The crafting system is probably not going to be as reliable as rune words, perhaps, so it'd just be a money hole like gambling was. If these were the best way to get every best-in-slot item, then it'd kill the gambling system of killing stuff to see what drops. Also not going to happen.
Ergo, gold will at best remain like water, instead of a currency. Which is okay, but the guy doesn't have to try so hard to razzle dazzle us...
I've liked the idea, but...
What about only premium users could remove then freely and free users only a couple of times? I've read about that they are not discarding the premium account thing.
I would not be surprised if they do this.
I disagree.
Im sure we all could of expected this coming lol....they must be very aware ppl hated the idea of messing up a character in some way and not being able to change it.
Don't be an idiot... Try to understand what he said, instead of assuming that you are all-knowing.
Once again. Right... YOU KNOW that it will be useless. What if they make repairs so expensive that without gold you can't continue playing. Then it won't be so useless anymore, will it? And they make it so painfully hard to get from drops that you will be begging people do give you gold.
I guess it's impossible, because you know better than Blizzard.
They wouldn't do that, because they enjoy having customers. Le duh.
He isnt banned because he tends to post simple facts and does not troll.
Also, how do you know gold will be easy to get and not be currency this time around? What does it have to do with customers????
Get your facts straight.
I like the scaling of the cost, too. One thing that really attracted me to PlugY was the fact that you could try out different things and not get pigeonholed, but even that didn't have the ability to remove runes (though that may well have been a game engine limitation).
I'm so jazzed for this game. I am taking a three-day vacation from life to play this when it hits.
Very good system they've introduced.